Comments on: Blog Gestation Periods

By: BillinDetroit

BillinDetroit — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:12:45 +0000

In the US, pretty much any field is somewhat crowded (on the internet). I happen to think that I can hold my own in the pack and progressively move toward the front – and the bank.

I have several blogs and write in at least one of them every day … sometimes posting two or more good posts (est. ~100-800 words) in the same day. This is governed by how well the creative juices flow on any given day. My idea of ‘good’ may not match everyones idea of ‘good’, but I think that, given enough time, it will reach enough of them. There are a lot of people in my demographic categories, but most of them aren’t posting to blogs.

My first goal is to put up good content … and enough of it that people will come back time after time, bring their friends and click on the money links on the way out. I have faith in the ‘reader / writer contract’ and intend to ride that pony all the way down the canyon.

Speaking of the bottom of the canyon, Google is accepting banner ads that display both the phone number and URL for the advertiser. I am not too thrilled with giving a viewer two ways to respond positively respond to an ad I displayed that do not compensate me. I’ve blacklisted the advertiser and let Google know that I think this shows a paucity of ethics.

By: Rene

Rene — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 08:38:46 +0000

Did I reach the tipping point in blogging? Well certainly not. My blog targets a truely new niche here in Europe. It is about clinical depression and coping with that illness.

Blogging itself is fairly new to Europeans especially Germany. That´s why I am considering the following 2 points:

- since I started very early on this topic I belong to the first and highest ranked at google
- when blogging/blogs get more attention my blog will gain attention, too

It is an experiment for sure. I believe highly in the virtue of passion and persistence. After all I am not into it for the money, but for the fun of it. If I gain money that why – wonderful!

Since around 10% of our country´s people (Germany) seem to be clinical depressed that means 8 mio people. If I only reach 0,1 percent of them I am still in the game. :)

I love to help people and I believe that my personal message will help other people grow. I have been there where many depressed people are.

By: Paula Mooney

Paula Mooney — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 05:01:09 +0000

I’m grateful. My baby has seen over 50,000 pageviews in a short period of time. Thank you for all your tips and then some…

http://paulamooney.blogspot.com/

By: Dustin

Dustin — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 04:59:23 +0000

I think I am in the first trimester of creating mine. Basically, I am getting links out there, learning how to build my content correctly, modifying my site (www.digmann.com) to be SEO, and making semi regular posts. Once these initial steps are under my belt, I think I can get a clear picture of my progress. I will keep you posted.

By: Shawn Blanc

Shawn Blanc — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:51:13 +0000

Depends on what you define as ‘taking off’?

How long it took me to start writing consistently: About 3 Months
How long it took to start seeing semi-regular comments: About 6 months
How long it took to have a solid faithful readership: About 9 months

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:04:16 +0000

Just getting started with mine, which is under a month old. Having fun with the experiment. I have had days as high as 500+ views on 200 uniques, and other days as low as just a handful. I haven’t done as much as I can to get out on other blogs and market it, but I feel like I am still building a good content base for reader loyalty to be a factor once they come upon the site. Whether mine is grows big or stays relatively small, it is still a fun outlet for me to play with.

By: Brett

Brett — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:04:19 +0000

My “super niche” blog hasn’t really taken off the way I’d hoped, but it’s still pretty early in the game (only about a month or so old). Just need to keep at it, I guess :)

By: Nathan Hughes

Nathan Hughes — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:23:15 +0000

It also depends on what your target niche is. If you have a very small number of potential subscribers, based on a very specific, specialty niche, then success is measured differently than if you are doing a pop culture “Entertainment Weekly” style blog.

It’s more important to ask if you are accomplishing your goal when evaluating your success.

By: Brett

Brett — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 02:01:23 +0000

This discussion is great. As a brand new blogger (less than 3 weeks) I have found all of these comments really helpful. I have no real traffic yet and it has been interesting to read about other bloggers’ experiences in this area.

By: Blogging Gestation Periods at Blog Tips at Blog Bullet

Blogging Gestation Periods at Blog Tips at Blog Bullet — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:01:55 +0000

[...] Blogging Gestation Periods Published December 4th, 2006 in Offsite Tips Darren Rowse of Problogger has a great writeup on Blog Gestation Periods. He notes that some blogs can be profitable within a few weeks, while others are slow to grow and take a long time to develop a reader base. [...]

By: Eber

Eber — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:37:08 +0000

My main blog was born in april 2006, and today has 2.000 uniques per day. Detail: writing in portuguese, which has so much less audience than english.

By: Stropp

Stropp — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:18:43 +0000

I’ve been blogging now for about two and a half months, and I get about 150 – 200 unique visitors a day according to awstats. My first full month earned me about 85 cents in adsense revenue, and my second full month earned nearly two dollars. So if I double every month, in a year I’ll be earning around 512 dollars a month. ;-)

By: Become a Consutlant Blog >> Andrea the Consultant

Become a Consutlant Blog >> Andrea the Consultant — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:26:16 +0000

I started off with a couple hundred visits (not hits) a week. A little more than seven months later, I’m getting a few thousand visits a week. Readership recently doubled (month over month), and I’m optimistic about where things are going.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 04:41:26 +0000

Started my blog early November and so far I’m pleased with the results. It’s a real estate site for Miami. I’d like to think that it is quite provocative and not staid and traditional like most real estate sites. Keeping it “thinking different” is what keeps it fun for me. Plan to add “adsense” soon.

By: reikiblogger

reikiblogger — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 04:26:31 +0000

i would say we are in the slow and steady group. our blog is about writing though.. if people want to read it.. great.. but it is really just about writing our thoughts and opinions out loud.
because it is our first site, we have also used it as a way to learn about blog writing and publishing. It has been a good way to make mistakes, without worrying about it effecting the things we hope we will be worrying about in 12 months time, and a few more blogs later.. like indexing, readership, CTR, site flow.
So far i would say our biggest boost in unique visitors has came after about 6 weeks to 2 months (we are approx. 3 months old) when we started getting indexed better in some search engines.
Regular readership for us has been very much one at a time.

thanks for writing darren. all the best for a great 2007 and beyond..

By: HART (1-800-HART)

HART (1-800-HART) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:28:42 +0000

It’s good to see a lot of variety up here in these comments .. and keeping it real for the most of us. Not everybody can be a “Trent” and get 2500 subscribers in 3 months, dugg, and lifehacked… I think I will use that saying from now .. “pull a Trent” if you know what I mean hehe .. (comment #19)

(j/k Trent – and I subscribed today to The Simple Dollar anyway!)

I think when I look at Darren’s lifespans – which comparing the gestation of these mammals to blogs is crazy anyway .. I will think of the ones with shorter lifesplans to be like those blogs that are here today and gone tomorrow.

By: Barbra Sundquist

Barbra Sundquist — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:14:22 +0000

p.s. and to fully answer the question about how do I know how many subscribers I have, I can look in my Aweber stats (Aweber is the autoresponder service that I use for ezine distribution) and see how many people have subscribed.

p.p.s. Like Elle, I’m anticipating it will take 3 years for HomeBusinessWiz to generate the kind of revenue that I envision. Having said that, I’m still as impatient for results as a h**ny little rabbit!

By: Barbra Sundquist

Barbra Sundquist — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:10:49 +0000

To those who asked how do I know how many subscribers I have…there’s two ways. In the case of HomeBusinessWiz, I have a “sign up for my newsletter” box. So the subscribers I refer to are those who have subscribed using that box. The newsletter is an ezine that I send out monthly.

The other way would be if you had RSS subscription buttons on your site (I don’t have them on HomeBusinessWiz yet). Then subscribers would automatically receive updates via their RSS feeds.

Of course, as you probably know, newsletter subscription and RSS subscription are two different things.

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 02:36:46 +0000

Luke – keep at it. You’ve been writing some nice content but it takes time. You’re only at the two month mark in a very competitive niche (ie there’s a lot of SEO blogs out there) so it will take time to break into the niche and attract readers.

By: Elle Brown

Elle Brown — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 01:47:48 +0000

Starting back in October 2005 all I ever wanted was steady growth each month. Looking back now over the last 15 months I could say in a round about way I have had exactly this. Some months are the same as the one before and I even had a drop one month, but as an overview I definitely see significant growth. November 2006 was my best month to date and very early predicts suggest December will be even better.

I see my blog as a 3 year project, in so much I believe month 36 will bring me the traffic and earnings set out in my initial goals. So I guess in adult years I’m about 6 years old waiting to come of age at 18!

I’m definitely in for the long game.